Workday Magazine (https://workdaymagazine.org/new-hennepin-county-contract-aids-lowest-paid-workers/)

The new contract covering 5,000 Hennepin County employees boosts the wages of the lowest-paid workers, a key aim in negotiations, union representatives said.

Nine unions that are part of AFSCME Council 14 took part in the bargaining.They represent a variety of county employees, including clerical, health care, corrections and financial assistance workers. Union members overwhelmingly approved the new contract Dec. 6, with 84 percent voting yes.

The new two-year contract includes general wage increases of 3 percent or 50 cents per hour, whichever is greater.

"Of the 5,000 members we were negotiating for, nearly 2,000 got more than three percent (because they will get the 50 cents per hour)," said Council 14 Business Representative Steve Marincel. "It really caught the people we wanted to catch" - the employees at the lower end of the wage scale.

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Marincel added: "We were trying to focus on three things in bargaining. One was a decent general wage adjustment. The second was trying to bring up the bottom and the lowest-paid people. And the third thing we wanted to do, was to give some relief for what they were paying for family (health insurance) coverage out-of-pocket. And we got all three of them."

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Achieving a living wage
The living wage issue became key to the contract campaign, said Council 14 Business Representative Jeff Dains. "The financial assistance workers at Local 34 were being told by the county that for people who were coming off the program (Minnesota Family Income Protection), they should be finding jobs for those folks at a living wage, $14 an hour. And here we've got 1,400 people at Hennepin County - the very people working to place people in living wage jobs - that aren't making a living wage, or even close to it." Dains said some members were actually homeless.

The wage increase still won't bring all members up to a living wage right away, but "it's hurrying them along," Marincel said. The nine local unions at Hennepin County represent a wide range of positions and salaries, from food service workers to county attorneys. The negotiators were able to get a fair increase for those at the top, while giving members in lower pay ranges a leg up, he said.

Although workers throughout the nine local unions all wanted a fair wage increase, all of them supported the effort to help those at the lower end of the pay range, Marincel said. "This was a very solidarity-based bargaining team."

A real effort was made by the local unions to bring members into the contract campaign, culminating in a large rally Nov. 8 outside the Hennepin County Government Center, he said. Informational bannering at the Hennepin County Medical Center also has an effect, union leaders said.

In addition to boosting wages, the new contract holds the line on health care increases - and even cut the cost in some instances.

"We were able to roll back the out-of-pocket costs for premiums by as much as $38 a month," Marincel said. Cost increases for the HealthPartners plan were just 5 percent for Hennepin County for each year of the contract. That, plus the fact that many county employees' dependents were on medical assistance or MinnesotaCare (the state-subsidized health plan), allowed union negotiators to persuade management that some relief was needed and possible. Past wage increases had also been eroded by health insurance cost increases.

This article was adapted from one written by Don Dinndorf for the Novesmber/December 2001 issue of Minnesota Public Employee, the official publication of AFSCME Council 6 and Council 14.

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New Hennepin County contract aids lowest-paid workers

By tsuperadmin | January 3, 2002

The new contract covering 5,000 Hennepin County employees boosts the wages of the lowest-paid workers, a key aim in negotiations, union representatives said.

Nine unions that are part of AFSCME Council 14 took part in the bargaining.They represent a variety of county employees, including clerical, health care, corrections and financial assistance workers. Union members overwhelmingly approved the new contract Dec. 6, with 84 percent voting yes.

The new two-year contract includes general wage increases of 3 percent or 50 cents per hour, whichever is greater.

“Of the 5,000 members we were negotiating for, nearly 2,000 got more than three percent (because they will get the 50 cents per hour),” said Council 14 Business Representative Steve Marincel. “It really caught the people we wanted to catch” – the employees at the lower end of the wage scale.

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Marincel added: “We were trying to focus on three things in bargaining. One was a decent general wage adjustment. The second was trying to bring up the bottom and the lowest-paid people. And the third thing we wanted to do, was to give some relief for what they were paying for family (health insurance) coverage out-of-pocket. And we got all three of them.”

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Achieving a living wage
The living wage issue became key to the contract campaign, said Council 14 Business Representative Jeff Dains. “The financial assistance workers at Local 34 were being told by the county that for people who were coming off the program (Minnesota Family Income Protection), they should be finding jobs for those folks at a living wage, $14 an hour. And here we’ve got 1,400 people at Hennepin County – the very people working to place people in living wage jobs – that aren’t making a living wage, or even close to it.” Dains said some members were actually homeless.

The wage increase still won’t bring all members up to a living wage right away, but “it’s hurrying them along,” Marincel said. The nine local unions at Hennepin County represent a wide range of positions and salaries, from food service workers to county attorneys. The negotiators were able to get a fair increase for those at the top, while giving members in lower pay ranges a leg up, he said.

Although workers throughout the nine local unions all wanted a fair wage increase, all of them supported the effort to help those at the lower end of the pay range, Marincel said. “This was a very solidarity-based bargaining team.”

A real effort was made by the local unions to bring members into the contract campaign, culminating in a large rally Nov. 8 outside the Hennepin County Government Center, he said. Informational bannering at the Hennepin County Medical Center also has an effect, union leaders said.

In addition to boosting wages, the new contract holds the line on health care increases – and even cut the cost in some instances.

“We were able to roll back the out-of-pocket costs for premiums by as much as $38 a month,” Marincel said. Cost increases for the HealthPartners plan were just 5 percent for Hennepin County for each year of the contract. That, plus the fact that many county employees’ dependents were on medical assistance or MinnesotaCare (the state-subsidized health plan), allowed union negotiators to persuade management that some relief was needed and possible. Past wage increases had also been eroded by health insurance cost increases.

This article was adapted from one written by Don Dinndorf for the Novesmber/December 2001 issue of Minnesota Public Employee, the official publication of AFSCME Council 6 and Council 14.

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Hennepin County workers call for fair contract

By tsuperadmin | January 3, 2002

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